Gary Skinner <gfs@drutx.att.com> (12/06/89)
What does it actually take to install a pay phone? Does the CO have to provide a special line, or can I put a pay phone on any old line? I believe the full function pay phones need special signals to correctly work. Any idea of relative cost of pay phone line? Who gets what money for the line? Thanks for the info in advance. G Skinner att!drutx!gfs
michael@uunet.uu.net (Michael Katzmann) (12/07/89)
In article <1908@accuvax.nwu.edu> gfs@drutx.att.com (Gary Skinner) writes: >X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 557, message 10 of 11 >What does it actually take to install a pay phone? >Does the CO have to provide a special line, or can I put a pay phone >on any old line? I believe the full function pay phones need special >signals to correctly work. >Any idea of relative cost of pay phone line? >Who gets what money for the line? A few months ago I posted an article asking for help in getting a pay phone going that I bought at a hamfest. Well I got a few replies, one of which put me on the right track. Apparently since the Bell breakup any one can operate a payphone. As such you can buy "private" payphones from various companies that will work on normal phone lines. ATT sell a version of their payphones that they call a Private payphone. These differ from the standard BOC type payphone in that the phones themselves figure out how much to charge. This is done, in the case of my "Elcotel" phone (which incidently has everything except the electronics made by Weco (ATT)), with the aid of a rating module. This has stored in it all the information as to billing from the payphone's number to anywhere in the US. This phone also has stored voice announcements "Please deposit 25 cents", "Invalid Number", "Please call again, Thank you" etc. The phone waits till you have finished dialing before validating the number, connecting to the exchange line and dialing the number. It also has the 0+ bong stored (it deliberatly has about a 3dB S/N so as to sound like a long distance connection!! (on MCI I suppose). You can change rating information from the keypad (after entering the security code) or do it by modem. (i.e. dial upthe payphone which answers after 5 rings (programmable)). The payphone can also be made to automatically ring you up when the coinbox becomes full, or when it is being vandelised! The phone works out that you have connected, and thus takes you money, by doing a voice signature analysis! (Very clever...) It has alot of ways of redirecting your long distance calls to your favourate LD co. (It is set up initially to reject 10XXX calls! but this can be re-programmed). New, these phones are about $1500 and up! Much better if you can find a hamfest. (I payed $125 (and all that was wrong was that the keypad was miswired and the tone-progress detector chip was fried)) The BOC type phones a dumb phones with the billing worked out at the CO, and voltage "wink" to tell the phone to take your money etc. If you're a business C&P (in our area) may put in a payphone for you and give you a slice of the profits. (but if you just want a REALLY sturdy phone for home,(you know, the ones as strong as the phones that you got from Bell before the break-up) you're out of luck) email to UUCP: uunet!mimsy!{arinc,fe203}!vk2bea!michael _ _ _ _ Amateur | VK2BEA (Australia) ' ) ) ) / // Radio | G4NYV (United Kingdom) / / / o _. /_ __. _ // Stations| NV3Z (United States) / ' (_<_(__/ /_(_/|_</_</_ Michael Katzmann Broadcast Sports Technology. 2135 Espey Ct. #4 Crofton Md. 21114 USA Ph: +1 301 721 5151
john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) (12/09/89)
In article <1908@accuvax.nwu.edu> gfs@drutx.att.com (Gary Skinner) writes: >What does it actually take to install a pay phone? >Does the CO have to provide a special line, or can I put a pay phone >on any old line? I believe the full function pay phones need special >signals to correctly work. You will need a special line, but not because of technical requirements of the phone. The line will have certain restrictions such as no IDDD, billed number screening (so people can't call it collect, etc.), and a few other restrictions. The local rate is a bit different from standard business lines as well. "Full function" pay phones do all the work. They set the rate and ask for the money, detect answer and collect, and some of them now do automated collect calls. They do "OCC-style" dialing to put calls over slimeball carriers. The line itself does nothing to assist the phone in its duties. >Any idea of relative cost of pay phone line? It's roughly the same as a business line. >Who gets what money for the line? The telco and they charge you for local calls as well. Your profit is the difference between what you collect and what telco charges you. Long distance goes to your carrier who shares with you a preset amount. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
de@cs.rit.edu> (04/23/91)
I noted in a small article in our local small paper, the {Rochester,
NY Times-Union} that AT&T is going to test market pre-paid cards for
their payphones. These tests will be made in large international
airports, particularly JFK in NYC. Cost will be $4.75 for a card that
will provide $5 worth of calling.
David Esan de@moscom.com